by Tim Waggoner
All right, Xander, she thought. You said the outside is where the fun is. You damn well better be right.
She joined the others, and together they continued setting up shop.
* * *
In a downtown Detroit apartment, the Director stood in front of a bank of monitors kludged together from spliced cables and hacked telephone lines. The screens displayed various video images and data feeds, and the Director took in all the information as easily as a sponge absorbed water. He wiped sweat out of his eyes and off his lower face. The room was hotter than motherfucking hell, but it couldn’t be helped. He was just going to have to put up with it.
Jonas Borne hauled a propane heater into the room. He set it up next to a dozen others and then turned it on.
When Borne was finished, he joined the Director at the monitors. “Let me guess. Everyone’s not exactly jumping at the chance to dismantle their spy programs.”
“The world’s too stupid to believe that Moscow wasn’t a bluff,” the Director said. And really, he hadn’t expected anything different.
“So what do we do?” Borne asked.
“Lay down our hand.”
The Director held Pandora’s Box—the real one, not the shitty prototype he’d let Cage and his dysfunctional band of misfits chase—and now he activated it. One of the monitors displayed a list of satellites, and using Pandora’s Box like a remote, he scrolled through the list until he came to the one he wanted. He then selected a target.
Rome. The Vatican.
The Director wiped sweat from his brow and smiled.
* * *
Xander and Serena were on the roof of a building on an industrial pier near the Riverfront.
He and Serena worked to assemble an antenna array; as they did, they heard Becky’s voice in their ears.
“Once the array’s installed, I’ll be able to triangulate Pandora’s signal to within a hundred feet anywhere in the city,” she said.
As they finished up the job, Serena said, “You know, one thing I never understood. Why fake your death? Why walk away from the world when it needed you the most?”
Xander considered how much he wanted to tell her. He decided on the short version. “Gibbons recruited me because he needed a rebel to protect the people of this world. Turns out I was only protecting the people on top. You can’t fight the man if you work for him.”
They made a few final adjustments, then Becky performed some tests, pronounced everything “fine as wine,” and Xander and Serena packed up their tools and started down the stairs.
As they descended, Xander asked, “What about you?”
“Me?” Serena said.
“How did you get into all this? The Triple-X program, I mean.”
“Tagged a skyscraper. Got a year in jail for it.”
“A year? Seems excessive.”
“Tag was thirty stories tall. Two million hits on YouTube. I served only half my sentence.”
Xander grinned. He was going to have to check out that video. “Let me guess. Gibbons to the rescue.”
“Yep. He said a lion like me didn’t belong in any kind of cage.” She stopped on a landing and pulled up her sleeve to reveal a lion tattoo.
“Yeah, that’s why I got this after I left the NSA.” Xander pulled up his sleeve to reveal a similar tattoo, and Serena smiled. He noticed another on her left wrist: a Ferris wheel.
“Where did you get that one?” he asked.
“London, 2009, climbed the Millennium Wheel…” She paused, then added, “Naked.”
“Naked?” He smiled. “Where was I?”
He lifted his shirt to reveal a tattoo around his nipple: a circle of fire.
“High school,” he said.
Serena laughed. “Nooo!”
“We all have things we’re embarrassed about,” Xander said, lowering his shirt. “What about that beautiful one above your belly?” It was a stylized image of a bull’s face.
“Running with the bulls, 2011. Last woman standing. Last man standing, actually.”
“Impressive. Try doing that with elephants.” Xander rolled up his right sleeve to reveal the massive elephant tattoo on his arm. Xander pointed to one on her left hip and waist, a graceful image of a bird. “What about that sexy one right there?”
“Phoenix out of the ashes,” she said. “Fourteen hours in a chair in Mexico. Drank my body weight in tequila to get through it. It’s the most important one, actually. It was when I decided to change the world rather than rage against it. I saw the wings on your back at the beach.”
“Some ink you don’t explain,” he said. Then, more to change the subject than anything else, he reached out and brushed her hair away from her neck. “What about this beautiful one on your neck?”
It was a sphere that radiated beams of light.
“New York, 2014,” she said. “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. I dropped the ball twenty minutes early.”
“They say the ribs are the most painful.” Xander lifted his shirt once more to reveal his ribcage. “I got this one straight and sober. It’s a tigress. I got it right after I watched this crazy girl drop the ball ten minutes before I was about to. New York City, 2013. I was standing in the square.”
Her eyes widened in surprise and she smiled in delight. “You saw me across the square?”
“Nah, I saw you across the city.”
Without realizing it, they had pushed very close to one another. Serena leaned toward him, and he leaned toward her. But just as their lips touched, Becky shouted in their ears, spoiling the moment.
“We found him! We’ve got Pandora’s Box!”
They broke apart, but as they looked into each other’s eyes, Xander knew that whatever was happening between them wasn’t over. It fact, it was only beginning.
* * *
Xiang, Talon, and Hawk sat inside a van, parked only a block away from the NSA safehouse. Xiang sat behind the wheel, cigarette in hand, window open to allow the smoke to drift out. Hawk sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window and tapping his fingers on the dash, jonesing for some action. And Talon sat in the back, laptop open next to him, the screen mirroring Becky’s workstation display. They’d followed Xander’s friends to the safehouse, and Talon had managed to slip in through another entrance, find the equipment room, get inside, plant the signal-cloning device, relock the door, and get out before the NSA team reached the room.
Nobody ever sees me, boss.
Xiang couldn’t dispute that.
“This is it!” Talon said. He slid a finger across the screen, increasing the volume. Becky’s voice came through the laptop’s speaker.
“We found him! We’ve got Pandora’s Box!”
Xiang smiled, took a quick drag on his cigarette, and then tossed it out the window. “Not if we find him first.”
Talon gave him the Director’s location: a penthouse in a downtown apartment building. They could be there within minutes. Feeling the anticipation of a hunter closing in on his prey, Xiang started the van, put it in gear, gunned the engine, and peeled away from the curb.
* * *
In their own van, Xander’s team raced down the street. Tennyson drove and Nicks rode shotgun, but from the queasy expression on Nicks’s face, it looked as if he now regretted his choice of seat.
Serena and Adele sat in the back, and while they maintained their composure more effectively than Nicks, it was clear from the way they gripped the seat that they weren’t any more relaxed than he was.
Xander sat in the middle seat, arms spread out, smiling. At least someone is enjoying the ride, Tennyson thought.
He drove like a maniac, even by his standards, swerving though traffic, scraping cars and clipping side mirrors. Blaring horns, squealing tires, and shouted obscenities followed in his wake, the sounds like soothing music to him. He laughed with delight and turned to look at Nicks. But the man was looking straight ahead, an expression of horror on his face.
“Red light! Red light! Red light!” Ni
cks shouted.
Tennyson zoomed through the intersection squeezing between two trucks with only inches to spare.
“You know traffic signals were invented by Big Oil to waste fuel and drive up profits, right?” Tennyson said.
“If I say yes, will you please slow down?” Nicks pleaded.
* * *
In the back seat, Serena did her best to ignore Tennyson’s suicidal driving, but it wasn’t easy. Ever since they’d gotten in the van, Adele had avoided eye contact with her, and she could sense the woman’s hostility toward her. Serena wasn’t the type of person to avoid a confrontation, and if they were going to function as teammates, they needed to clear the air.
“Is this the part where you act the basic bitch and tell me you’ve got your eye on me and that you don’t trust me?” Serena asked.
Adele finally turned to look at her. “Yes, this is that moment.” She sighed. “Listen, you have to understand, for five years I’ve been carrying around a phone. And there’s only one person in the world who had the number.” She nodded toward Xander. “That butthead. And he called because he needed me, so I’m here. And now you’re here.”
Adele paused and Serena understood what the woman was leaving unsaid—and what it was costing her not to say it. Adele and Xander had been close once. Very close. And although that time was over, it was clear she would do anything for him. Serena appreciated that kind of loyalty. It was a rare thing, but Xander engendered it in the people whose lives he touched.
Adele continued. “So look, it’s nothing personal. I think it’s just as likely you’ll stab him in the back as save his life. But hey, I don’t trust kittens, so why don’t you prove me wrong?”
Adele drew her Glock and slapped it into Serena’s hand.
Serena understood that the woman had done more than simply give her a weapon. She smiled. “Thanks.”
“Stopstopstop!” Nicks yelled.
They had pulled onto an expressway overpass, and ahead of them, traffic was stopped dead. Tennyson slammed on the brakes, and the van started skidding. Serena thought the vehicle might flip over, but Tennyson managed to get the van back under control, and he was able to stop before slamming into the car ahead of them.
Xander peered out the window at the gridlock.
“All right, we’re gonna have to hoof it,” he said.
* * *
Xander and the team got out of the van. They checked their gear and bumped fists, psyching each other up in preparation for what was to come. Xander took a phone from his pocket and handed it to Serena.
“If you run into trouble, dial nine,” he said.
She nodded and took the phone. “Promise me you’ll destroy it.”
Xander didn’t answer. Instead, he looked toward an apartment building in the distance. That was it: their target. The Director was in that building, holed up in the penthouse. He had the device with him, and he could use it at any moment. He turned to Adele. She’d slipped on her rifle backpack and was ready to rumble.
“Find higher ground,” he said.
“I’m one step ahead of you,” she said, and after exchanging a parting glance with Serena, she started running.
Xander turned to Tennyson. “Stay with the boat.”
Before he could say anything to Nicks, he caught sight of Xiang two lanes over, unloading a van with Hawk and Talon. Xiang looked over, as if he sensed Xander’s presence, and the two men locked eyes.
“You crash my party, I’m gonna crash yours,” Xiang shouted. To Hawk and Talon, he said, “Kick their asses!”
“This ain’t a party,” Nicks said. “This is a race. Get him, X!”
Xiang jumped onto the back of a car and then onto the guardrail. Without hesitation, he leaped off the rail and dropped out of sight.
Xander started to run after Xiang, only to find his way blocked by Hawk. Xander didn’t slow down. Before the man could make a move, Xander grabbed him by the shoulders, spun him around, pinned his arms against his back, and frogmarched him toward the guardrail.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hawk demanded.
“Building a ramp!” Xander said.
He shoved Hawk onto the guardrail, stepped on his back, then onto his shoulders, and then used him as a springboard. He leaped into space and plummeted toward the expressway below.
8
Xander landed on a ten-ton truck driving under the expressway, immediately lost his footing, and tumbled down the too-short cargo box before dropping off the back. He desperately grabbed for the rear edge of the roof and snagged hold of it, hanging on with the grip of an experienced free-climber. His body banged against the truck’s rear cargo door, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and held on, refusing to let go.
Just another day at the office, he thought.
* * *
“Go, go, go!” Serena shouted, urging her new teammates to scatter. Adele was already gone, having run past the lines of stopped cars, across the overpass, and into the neighborhood on the other side, where she turned down an alley. Tennyson and Nicks ran back to the van, and Serena turned to head in the direction they’d come from. She remembered the van zooming past a car-parts junkyard before getting onto the overpass, and she headed in that direction now. Unfortunately, Talon followed after her in hot pursuit, and it was her turn to run a race.
Let’s see just how fast you are, my friend, she thought, and poured on the speed.
* * *
As Tennyson once more got behind the wheel of the van, he saw Hawk open the door of another van—a beat-up yellow delivery truck. Hawk pulled out the driver, threw him to the ground, and got in. Hawk threw the vehicle into reverse and began backing up.
Nicks and Tennyson jumped back in their van, and jammed it into reverse. The van smashed into a car that had pulled up behind them, but Tennyson continued clumsily backing up, sideswiping a couple more vehicles as he went.
Hawk had backed up far enough now that he had room to turn around. He did so, and then drove off, quickly picking up speed. Tennyson managed to get their van turned around as well, and then he and Nicks hauled ass after Hawk. The chase was on!
* * *
Serena reached Bennett’s Auto Salvage and raced inside, Talon hot on her heels. They moved swiftly through the junkyard, Serena pulling open car doors as she passed to create a maze of metal she hoped would slow Talon down. It did—if only a little—and she managed to put some distance between them. But Talon grew tired of navigating Serena’s makeshift labyrinth, and he hopped up onto the roof of a car to get a better view. Serena made sure that he saw her, then she ducked out of sight, and slipped into a waiting car.
She heard Talon leap from vehicle to vehicle as he searched for her, and when she judged he was close, she popped up through the car’s open sunroof and trained her Glock on him.
She smiled. “Looking for someone?”
Talon made a disgusted face and raised his hands in surrender.
Thanks for the gun, Adele, she thought.
* * *
Xander managed to pull himself up just far enough to see over the truck, and he spotted Xiang kneeling on top of a tractor trailer only a little further ahead in traffic. A bus was in the process of passing the truck, and Xander saw his chance. He pulled himself onto the truck’s roof, jumped to his feet, and started sprinting. In one continuous run, he reached the front of the truck’s cargo box, leaped onto the bus seconds before it passed, kept going as the bus pulled up even with Xiang, and then he leaped onto the tractor trailer and charged straight toward the man. Xiang turned at the last second and realized too late that Xander had caught up with him. Xander slammed into him and the two men pitched off the trailer and slammed onto the roof of an SUV below.
But then the driver of the SUV reacted to having a pair of heavy objects land on his roof. He hit the brakes, and Xander and Xiang flew off the roof and hit the street. The SUV slid out of control and swerved into oncoming traffic, just missing the two men as they tumbled to a s
top. But the car behind them raced toward them. Xander instinctively put up his hand to shield himself as the car’s driver braked to a stop only inches from his face. Xander rolled away from the vehicle straight into a kick from Xiang, who was lying on his side. With Xander momentarily stunned, Xiang leaped to his feet and started running through traffic.
Xander gave chase as Xiang cut straight into oncoming traffic. Drivers swerved desperately to avoid hitting him, but the drivers’ erratic movements made it difficult for Xander to avoid their vehicles, and he knew that Xiang had done this on purpose in an attempt to slow him down.
Smart, he thought. Not to mention ruthless as hell.
Another car lost control and slid right at Xander, but he hurdled over the car like he was pulling the most intense kick flip of his life, and then he followed that maneuver by 360ing over a car, tracking an invisible skate-line that only he could see. Xander continued moving over and around vehicles in the same manner, giving a gold-medal X-Games performance as he caught up to Xiang.
As Xander passed Xiang, he shouldered him into the path of an oncoming pickup truck, which the man narrowly avoided by executing a brilliant aerial flip. Xander was ahead for the moment, but then he was clipped by a car’s mirror, which—while doing no real damage—slowed him down, helping Xiang close the distance with him. Xiang swept Xander’s right leg out from under him, and Xander went down. Xiang sprinted past, but Xander expertly rolled and came back up on his feet. He picked up speed, and as he drew close to Xiang, he grabbed hold of the man’s collar from behind and jerked the man back into second place.
A few strides later, Xiang grabbed Xander’s arm and tried to pull it backward, but Xander, strong as a fucking bull, kept his arms pumping and pulled Xiang forward. Xiang spun around in front of Xander, released his grip on Xander’s arm, and put his back to him, forcing him off stride. Xander grabbed hold of Xiang and started to pull him backward once more, when Xiang was clipped by a passing vehicle. The impact sent Xiang airborne, and Xander was pulled along with him. The two men helicoptered through the air and landed hard in the middle of the street.
They lay together, stunned, as cars raced past all around them. Another car came barreling straight toward them, and they managed to roll in opposite directions as the vehicle zoomed through the space they’d occupied only a split second before. As they rolled, two more vehicles narrowly missed taking their heads off, and then both men jumped to their feet and rushed toward each other. Xiang attacked Xander with a kick combination that drove him back into traffic. But as Xiang launched into a finishing back kick, Xander stepped forward and caught Xiang’s leg and spun him off balance into the next lane. Xiang instantly regained his balance, but before he could do anything, a van hit him and punched him down the street. The driver, undoubtedly horrified, slammed on her brakes and came screeching to a halt.
